Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Hard to tell with the flat light, but it looked like new sluffs in steep, north facing gullies like the Y, Y-not, Triangle Couloir. Perhaps also the east facing side of Thunder. May have started dry, but looked like they turned into wet sluffs low. But a chance they were older slides with new snow on top.</p> <p>Winds were drifting snow down into open bowls, and down slope. Cracky, vey shallow and soft drifts, but not connecting very far where I was. Failing on the newly buried near surface facets.</p>
Shallow cracking on the new snow/old snow interface, where the old snow is small near surface facets. This layering will be worth keeping an eye on if the snow adds up over the next few days, especially accompanied by wind. I also had localized cracking/small collapses where the melt freeze sun crust beneath the new snow was thin, failing on dry snow below the crust.
Snowpack
Powder and dense, wind blown powder. Dust on crust on all but a wedge of upper elevation, northerly facing slopes which has nice soft snow beneath the new. Some slopes scoured to the melt freeze crusts by the wind. Upper elevation, due north facing slopes had the best turning (wind sheltered helped), with lower angle slopes the best chance of skimming over the crusts on most other aspects. Hoping for another foot or so to give winter a real comeback.